Is everyone a leader?

Where have all the leaders gone?   That lament is not infrequent in our society.  On the other hand, the popular literature suggests everyone can be, or is, a leader.   Is this possible?   

Some people do not want to lead.  They would rather follow, or perhaps they have never thought of themselves as leaders.  The whole concept may be alien to them.   

To be a leader requires commitment, intentional behavior, and focus.   These behaviors may not be right for everyone.   

To understand leadership, one also has to understand that not everyone seeks to be a leader

How Crucial Is One Leader?

With the disgrace of Bo Xi Lai in China, there seems to me to be an exaggeration of his significance in the overall Chinese political system.   Yes, it is a blot on the Chinese Communist Party, but, so what?   It does not prevent the party from functioning nor does it disable the rest of the leadership.  

I decided to put myself into the role of a Chinese person analyzing the US in order to point out the significance of the exaggeration.   The situations are not 100% parallel since the the US is not a one-party system, but the point is clear, I believe.

John Edwards, a disgraced American politician, is in President Obama's party.  A Chinese person might well interpret this as a disgrace to the Democratic Party that will handicap the President in his upcoming re-election campaign, in the same that Americans are viewing Bo's disgrace as a problem in the upcoming Chinese succession process.

In reality, does Edwards' disgrace in any way pose an issue for the President, the de facto leader of the Democratic Party?   No.   For most people, John Edwards has become irrelevant in the US political process.

I suggest that the same principle applies to Bo Xi Lai.   With his disgrace, he became irrelevant.  Yes, people may be disillusioned.  But, many Americans were personally disillusioned, when the seemingly idealistic Edwards proved to have clay feet.

Let us not exaggerate the significance of any one leader in our political system or other political systems.